How to Get Published

A short but comprehensive guide to getting your short stories, novels, magazine articles and non-fiction books published and avoiding rejection

by Dave Haslett (dave@ideas4writers.co.uk)

Introduction

Getting published is one of those things that everyone thinks is easy until they try it for themselves. Then they realise it isn’t easy, and most people give up. So let's start with a great tip on how to get published – persistence. Don't ever give up. If your work gets rejected ten or fifteen times, so what? It might well be accepted the eleventh or sixteenth or twenty-fifth time. Just about every writer you can name has had their work rejected, usually many times over. What if they'd given up after their third rejection? But they didn't. That's what makes the difference. Publishers make mistakes – big ones sometimes. Harry Potter was rejected by nine publishers. Aren't they kicking themselves now!

Short stories

The secret of getting published here is to know the market. Choose a small number of magazines that publish stories and study them closely. Get several issues, not just one. You need to know them inside out. Get to know the readers. They'll tell you who they are through the letters they send in and the questions they ask. Advertisers know exactly who the readers are – their adverts are carefully targeted. Study the adverts. What sort of people buy these things? Look at the articles and features. Are they about the lives that readers lead? Or what readers aspire to? Look at the stories. You'll notice that the main character is very similar to a typical reader of that magazine. The readers can imagine themselves in that role. Do the stories help readers come to terms with events in their lives? Or are they pure entertainment and escapism that allow readers to forget the real world for a few minutes?

Every magazine's requirements are different. Study the length, the characters, the settings, the situations, the plots and themes and so on. Make your story follow the same guidelines and you're well on your way to getting published. And talking of guidelines, most magazines have a set of guidelines for writers, so write in and ask for a copy, or see their website.

It's generally not worth writing short stories in the hope of publishing a collection of them in book form. These don't sell well and even the most famous of writers have trouble. By all means submit a few of your best ones for inclusion in an anthology, but don't expect huge royalty payments. Magazines are your best bet.

Novels

The next step up from writing short stories is to write a novel. Don't stop writing short stories while you work on it. There are many more short story competitions than novel competitions. So when you win a short story competition and a publisher or agent calls to ask if you've ever considered writing a novel, you'll be ready and waiting!

Many publishers now only accept submissions via an agent. More will do so over the next few years, and it'll probably become the norm. In the majority of cases approaching a publisher directly is a waste of time, so concentrate all your energies on finding a good agent instead.

Personal recommendation is a good way of getting a publisher or agent to at least read your work. Your local writer's circle will usually have at least one published writer who may be willing to put you in contact with their agent or publisher and give a personal recommendation. This immediately puts you in a far stronger position than those who just send their work out cold. Yours will more than likely be read thoroughly and given serious consideration. If your local writer's circle doesn't have any published members, try spreading your net and look for other groups in your area. You might have to travel a bit, but it'll be worth it.

If personal recommendation fails, turn to the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook or the Writer's Handbook and select some suitable publishers or agents. Also check your local bookshop and see if you can find anything similar to your novel. Add the publishers of those books to your list.

It's vitally important to address your submission to an agent or publisher's editor by name. If you don't know their name, phone the company's switchboard and ask who handles the sort of books you write. In fact editors tend to switch publishers quite frequently, so it’s a good idea to phone anyway to check that they still work there. While you're on the phone, ask them how they prefer to receive submissions – the whole thing, two or three chapters, the first hundred pages – and do they want a synopsis?

Publishers are reluctant to consider anything that doesn't have an obvious label or genre. Romance: yes. Horror: yes. Science Fiction/Fantasy: absolutely fine. But if you combine too many genres and come up with a thrilling gothic horror-western-crime-romance where the characters are all robot trolls... well, there aren't many publishers who will touch it no matter how well-written it is. There's no obvious shelf for it in the bookshops and therefore no obvious market.

Publishers generally aren't looking for a single book deal. If they decide to invest in a new writer it's because they believe that person has future potential. Their first book probably won't sell too well, but that's OK; they accept that. It takes time for a new writer to become known. The second book will sell more, and the third even more. If you've written one book but have no immediate plans for another, publishers might not be quite as interested as you'd expect – unless your book is truly exceptional. You often hear of new writers being offered two-book or three-book deals. Now you know why. When you submit your book to a publisher, it's wise to have plans in place for a second or even third one. Mention this in your covering letter, and perhaps include a brief synopsis of them. You'll be doing yourself a big favour, both in the short term - by helping to get your first book published, and in the longer term - by guaranteeing acceptance of your future work (as long as it's good enough!)

Magazine articles

As with short stories, the secret of getting articles published is to know your reader and know the magazine. Study the magazines you plan to submit articles to. Send off for their writer's guidelines.

You can dramatically increase your output - and therefore your earnings - by only writing articles that have actually been accepted, or which the editor has expressed interest in. The article writer's secret friend is the query letter. Write a short attention-grabbing paragraph or anecdote, then follow it up with a longer paragraph describing the article you're planning. Mention your relevant experience and expertise and previous publishing experience. Say why there's a real need for the article and the problems it will help the magazine's readers to overcome. Keep your query letter to a single page.

You can increase your chances of getting articles published by sending in good photographs. Magazines spend a fortune on photography and buying in the images they need. If you can supply suitable images with your article they're far more likely to consider your article favourably. A photography course is therefore highly recommended for all magazine article writers.

There are many more publications out there than you're aware of. Even the largest newsagent stocks only a fraction of the thousands of magazines that are available. You need to keep your eyes open wherever you go. Check doctors' and dentists' surgeries, charity shops, car boot sales, libraries, the Internet. Ask friends or colleagues if they get magazines that aren’t generally available. All of these are potential markets for your work.

An important point to remember is that magazines are produced several months in advance. Get your article on the editor's desk in plenty of time. A topical feature, such as one for a Christmas issue, should be sent off at least six months before the publication date.

Don't give up on an article if it gets rejected. If you do your homework you should be able to find at least fifty markets for every single article you write. Sure, it might need a little tweaking to suit different magazines, or perhaps you'll need to attack the subject from a different angle. As soon as it's ready, send it off to the next magazine on your list and forget about it. If it gets rejected fifty times then perhaps it's time to ditch that article and concentrate on the next one!

Non-fiction books

What subjects are you an expert in? My definition of an expert is someone who knows a subject well enough that they could teach an evening class in it. Anyone can be an expert. If you don't think you could teach your subject, study it some more. Then write about it.

As with magazine articles, never write a non-fiction book until it's been accepted for publication. The non-fiction book writer's secret weapon is the 'proposal'. There are several good books available on writing query letters and proposals. A very worthwhile investment!

You should already be 'putting yourself about a bit' as an expert in your subject. You might be giving talks or teaching classes for example. Mention that you're writing a book when you do this. Get your audience or students to spread the word. Do everything you can to bring attention to yourself. Whenever your subject gets press coverage, stick your oar in and offer an opinion on it.

A new angle on a popular subject will always be welcomed. Many enthusiasts buy every book on their subject that they can lay their hands on. If that subject is a popular one then you're pretty much guaranteed a successful book. Of course, some of these enthusiasts will probably know at least as much about the subject as you do – and a few will know a lot more – so you'll need to be an enthusiast yourself.

If possible, involve some of your fellow enthusiasts - especially the know-it-all, loudmouth ones - in checking your work for content and accuracy. If they have a personal interest in your book then they'll be more willing to help you promote it, rather than being hostile about it.

You can virtually guarantee that your book will be published if you include an impressive marketing plan with your proposal. Mention such things as: advertising in newsletters or magazines that you run or have close connections with; newspapers, magazines and other media who have agreed to feature you; clubs and associations whose members will be interested; speeches and presentations you give where you could sell copies; any arrangements you have with local bookshops; and so on. You'll need hard evidence to get the publisher to accept your proposal. But if you can convince him that a certain number of sales are guaranteed, and that number is higher than his break-even point, and your book is good enough for publication, then published it will be.

And if you can't find a publisher who's interested despite your impressive marketing plan, there's always the option of publishing the book yourself. After all, selling the books is the hardest part, and you already know how to do that!

For all book-length projects – fiction and non-fiction – it's worth paying to have your work checked over by a professional editorial service. They'll fix all the problems with syntax, spelling, grammar and punctuation and so on. And many of them have close relationships with agents and publishers and will recommend your book to them if they think it's good enough.

Rejection

Every writer gets rejected. It's an occupational hazard. The trick is to have a positive mental attitude and not let it get to you. Have plenty of other potential publishers and markets for each piece of work. Laugh off each rejection and send your work off to the next place on your list. If it's good enough then it will find a home eventually. And don't wait for one piece of work to be accepted before starting the next. If you've got several pieces of work on the go at once then it won't hurt so much if one or two of them get rejected. See if you can keep ten or twenty different pieces circulating at any one time, while writing new ones to replace those that eventually find a home.

Do you remember that at the beginning of this article I said that Harry Potter had been rejected nine times? Well here's a thought: those nine rejection slips are probably worth quite a bit of money now. So treasure yours!

Good luck!

About the author:
Dave Haslett is the founder of ideas4writers, the ideas and inspiration website, and i4w2, the ethical self-publishing service. If you'd like to write 10 full-length books per year and change your life forever, check out Dave's book "The Fastest Way to Write Your Book". Free ideas4writers membership with every copy!
http://www.ideas4writers.co.uk/books

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